A "baking" challenge: no oven or flour

[Niamh]

Well, I have a bit of a challenge for you bakers. The summer is coming and we have a four-day weekend starting tomorrow, so I wanted to make a cake to celebrate. I'm not much of a baker these days (for reasons you'll see in a second!), but usually I can come up with something.

This time, however, I'm making things hard for myself. Problem 1: the cake is for everybody passing through the house over the holidays, including a coeliac friend (no gluten). Oh, and problem 2: I have no oven

I was thinking of a refrigerated cheesecake with shop-bought gluten free digestive (graham cracker?) base, maybe strawberry, since they are all over the shops at the moment. I am sure I could find a recipe online, but I was wondering if anyone here had a tried and tested recipe, or indeed a totally different suggestion. Or maybe I should just make cocktails...

[Domestic Goddess]

Can she have constarch? I have a mean corn cake made from cornstarch and pureed can of corn - Maja Blanca.

[prasantrin]

Does it have to be cake-like? I'd make mango pudding. You could still make it in the shape of a cake by using whatever pan or mould you like, and if you have access to fresh mangoes, you could make your own pulp.

[Niamh]

Yep, corn is fine - the baddies are wheat, kamut, spelt, barley, rye, oats and malt, or anything that contains them. You can get gluten free flours made of corn etc., but most recipes that use them are for baked cakes - pssh!

[Domestic Goddess]

Ok Niemh here's the recipe for Maja Blanca.

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 cup pureed corn

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

coconut cream/milk (in a can)

1. In a small skillet, empty the can of coconut milk and heat it over medium heat. Keep stirring until the milk curdles. Keep stirring until the oil comes out and you're left with the brown curdled milk bits in the pan. Drain the oil and set aside.* Put the brown bits in a small bowl (don't throw them away).

*Get a loaf pan or a square baking pan and grease it with this coconut oil.

2. In a small mixing bowl, combine milk and sugar. Keep stirring until sugar has dissolved in the milk.

3. In a small saucepan, combine cornstarch and water. Stir very well untill all the lumps are dissolved and then cook over medium heat. When the mixture starts to thicken, add the corn puree. Stir for half a minute and then add the milk/sugar mixture. When it gets hard to stir the mixture (after 1-2 minutes) turn off the heat.

4. Remember the baking pan greased with coconut oil? Pour your cooked mixture into it and smooth the top. Sprinkle with the curdled brown bits.

5. Let cool, harden and chill in the fridge. When cool, cut into squares and serve.

Enjoy your maja blanca!

[pastrygirl]

Aren't digestive biscuits/graham crackers usually made from (whole) wheat? Or do you know of a GF version?

You could do flan in a steamer on the stovetop, or of course any of your usual stovetop puddings. I do a polenta souffle cake that might work in the steamer - cook a littl epolenta in milk, mix in lemon curd & egg yolks then beaten egg whites (I'm visualizing small individual things steamed in custard cups).

For something more cake-like, how about a crepe cake? Make crepes using rice flour or other GF flours, then layer them with chocolate ganache or lemon curd and stack them up into a cake.

Edited April 30, 2008 by pastrygirl (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

here is a no bake cheesecake recipe

no bake cheese cake

you can use ground nuts for the crust

and I would just top with fresh strawberries instead of canned

[Terrasanct]

Do they have any problem with nuts? If you do a search of low-carb recipes, there are plenty made with nut meals instead of flour. I used to make a chocolate cake that had no flour and was made in the microwave. Very rich, and quite good. This is more of an individual portion, but it could be made like cupcakes.

I found the recipe from lowcarbeating.com:

Ingredients

1⁄4 c almond flour

1 T cocoa powder

1⁄4 t Baking Powder

5 pk Splenda

1 T sf syrup

1 Egg

2 T Melted Butter

Instructions

In a 2 Cup Pyrex measuring cup,blend all dry ingredients. Add SF Syrup (or water instead), melted butter and egg...mix throughly. Cover with plastic wrap (To vent, cut small slit in center of plastic wrap.) Microwave on high for about 1 minute (I microwaved for 1 minute 10 seconds...you need to adjust as you think is right). When this comes out of the microwave, it looks a bit wet but dries as it cools.

Cool a bit, eat warm with whipped cream or cool completely to ice cake.

[Niamh]

Wow, thank you all for your replies - even if I don't use all of them this time, they will be great to keep in mind for the future. Just to answer your questions:

prasantrin - it doesn't have to be cake-like, that was just the idea I got in my head and that was what I went after. The mango pudding sounds lovely though; I love mangoes and they are easy to get.

Domestic Goddess - Thanks for the recipe, I will give that one a try regardless of the occasion. The name is also interesting, do you know where it comes from (I'm a translator, so I'm a bit of a nerd about these things!)? I'll see if maybe a Latin American shop has pureed corn. If it doesn't, do you know how I would go about making it myself?

pastrygirl - thanks for your ideas too. You can buy GF biscuits around here no problem. I should be able find digestives in any old health food shop or large supermarket.

hummingbirdkiss - we have our winning recipe! I will try that and report back.

Terrasanct - its a REALLY low-tech kitchen - no microwave either!

Thanks everybody!

[Rebecca263]

I think that pureed corn is what we call creamed corn in the US. I have a friend from Guatemala who uses it and she calls it pureed corn.

[rooftop1000]

How about coconut drop macaroons....or peanut butter oatmeal drops?

lots of stuff that is kind of like crumb topping...

oatmeal, butter, sugar, PB, coconut, nuts and choc chips etc

all rubbed together and "dropped" in spoonfuls

tracey

[Tri2Cook]

Steamed rice flour cakes? You could hide a little surprise in the middle like a piece of fruit or something and glaze them or drop them in a syrup like little steamed babas or something. Maybe a piece of candied ginger in the middle and soak them in a sake syrup. You could do them in mini muffin pans and turn out a bunch of bite sized cakes in a short amount of time.

[Tiny]

you could make a stack of gluten free buckwheat pancakes and then butter cream them up like a multi-layer cake.....

Bob's red mill makes a good gluten free flour blend and buckwheat flour is gluten free...

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Domestic Goddess - Thanks for the recipe, I will give that one a try regardless of the occasion. The name is also interesting, do you know where it comes from (I'm a translator, so I'm a bit of a nerd about these things!)?  I'll see if maybe a Latin American shop has pureed corn.  If it doesn't, do you know how I would go about making it myself? 

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Maja Blanca is a Filipino dessert.

[Lior]

I want to make the the maja Blanca as it sounds very interesting IMO. About this creamed or pureed corn- can someone describe? Can I take a can of corn kernels and puree them? Is that what it is? Is it smooth? I think it all sounds amazing! Thanks!

Let us know what you made in the end!

[jumanggy]

Actually, I think that would make it Maja Maiz-- Maja Blanca is a white gel (from the coconut cream), but it may have bits of corn in it anyway

[cathrynapple]

Here are my favorite wheat-free no bake cookies.

no bake cookies

[hummingbirdkiss]

bumping to see what you ended up doing? hope it was a success!